Rudy Giuliani has a lot of flip-flopping to do if he's going to get in line with Republican dogma before the primaries.
Speaking before the National Rifle Association, forceful gun control advocate and former anti-gun litigant Giuliani explained his sudden and convenient conversion to pro-gun Republican orthodoxy not a matter of craven political expediency, but as a result of that about which he most likes to talk:
..."intervening events" like September 11th had caused his views to evolve.
Of course they did. How could you witness 9/11 without reaching the entirely logical conclusion that what we need to do is loosen our gun control laws? If the other candidates had been there, as he was, they'd know, as he does, that if more people on the streets of New York had been packin', those planes would never have made it to the World Trade Center.
Be prepared for Rudy to make the same argument as he abandons long-held positions on other contentious issues:
"Having witnessed the horror of 9/11, I could not help but rethink my belief that women should control their own reproductive destinies."
"Had I known then what I had known now, I would never have had as many extramarital affairs as I did."
"I concluded that the best thing I could do for my country was to make a bunch of money as a shill for vile foreign entities."
And my own personal favorite:
"I abandoned my combover as a tribute to those trapped on the upper floors."
It's the all-weather excuse for Rudy's political expediency: 9/11 changed everything.
I predict that by the end of this, people will be as sick of Rudy reminding them about 9/11 as they were of John Kerry flogging his medals.
Frightening to me is the fact that I find myself in 100% agreeance with you.
Posted by: Scott | 09/21/2007 at 10:33 PM
That's twice in the last week. I don't know which of us should be more scared.
Posted by: Tom | 09/21/2007 at 10:57 PM
Is it even scarier that I agree with Tom?
Posted by: Squidley | 09/22/2007 at 03:19 AM
A demonstration that there are armed fanatics determined to go to extraordinary lengths to murder defenseless American civilians on US soil, and that the government's ability to prevent it is limited. Nope, can't see how that could be at all relevant to enabling said citizens to defend themselves.
Posted by: Conrad | 09/22/2007 at 10:06 AM
Actually, Rudy is spot on here. I've always endorsed the Archie Bunker approach to stopping hijackings: Issue every passenger a handgun. Some arab dude decides he wants to fly to kingdom come, and his fellow passengers simply expedite the process.
Problem solved.
Posted by: Pursuit | 09/22/2007 at 11:13 AM